TV Shows For Men: 1 True Detective

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HBO's latest attempt to blur the lines between film and television is destined for greatness. We're only a small handful of episodes into the first season of True Detective, but the opening credits alone are enough to convince a viewer that they're watching something special. Backed by acting talents like Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson and Michelle Monaghan, the show has breathed new life into the buddy-cop detective narrative, mostly by tearing it to pieces and starting fresh.
On the surface, the story seems familiar: two detectives, completely unlike one another in personality, are forced to come together to solve a particularly grizzly small-town murder. But there are no good cop/bad cop routines here. Harrelson plays a family man, Martin "Marty" Hart, struggling to keep his adultery a secret from his wife, while McConaughey's Rustin "Rust" Cohle a is Nietzsche-spouting pseudo-nihilist. The show takes place in two different times -- the late 90s, the time of the original murder, and the present day, giving its audience a unique narrative perspective: we know, roughly, where they end up, but not how they got there.
Men especially should pay attention to the relationship between Marty and Rust as they struggle to come to terms with one another, even quietly begin to respect each other, despite their differences of opinion.